


There's a Future In My Life I Can't Foresee

by foundfamilyvevo



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 15:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3072464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foundfamilyvevo/pseuds/foundfamilyvevo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"New Year's resolutions?" Liam asks at last, when he exhausts his information about his week away.</p>
<p>"Keep having fun," Nick answers.</p>
<p>Or, Nick and Liam spend their first New Year together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a Future In My Life I Can't Foresee

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much to tori poppunk1d for giving this a read-over at the SHORTEST NOTICE EVER, and to ana gucciandbanana, to whom half of this story credit should probably go since it came into being in a chat of ours. happy new year everyone! i hope 2015 treats you well.

Liam tumbles back through Nick's door New Year's Eve morning, bringing blustering cold winter air and a shiny smile and a small suitcase with him. He's spent a week with his parents over Christmas, a week where Nick didn't wake up to his terrible morning breath and where Nick had to make his own coffee and where Pig kept giving him knowing looks if he sighed too loud. His flat feels empty now when Liam isn't there, like the space Liam has carved for himself in it starts to ring and vibrate with everything Nick does on his own.

"Mum and Dad said to say hi," Liam tells him, before anything else. Which, of course they did, even though Nick's spoken to them about three times through the week, when they've found Liam chatting to him on the phone. Before Nick can come up with something funny to say in response, Liam adds, "I missed you."

They cross the living room floor, Liam dropping his suitcase and Nick reaching out before it's logical to do so. Liam's nose is cold where it presses into Nick's neck, and his coat is bulky, and it's so, so good to have him back. He smells like expensive cologne and roast potatoes.

"You too. I missed you, too."

 

Christmas with their families, New Year with their friends. That was how both Nick and Liam had agreed to do things this year. Whether that meant New Year _together,_ they weren't certain – until Harry called them, before Liam headed to his parent's for Christmas, and asked if they wanted to come to this bash he was going to throw. "Everyone'll be there," he said, implying that either Nick or Liam would know who 'everyone' was supposed to be.

Nick relayed the message over to the kitchen. Liam paused, halfway through making one of those green smoothies he and Nick both love and hate. He bit his lip and gave a sideways nod, a sort of _I'll go if you will_ , and Nick gave him a proper nod back. "Sure," Nick told Harry. "We'd love to come. Embarrass you in front of all your cool friends."

"You can't do that, oh god," said Harry, "Nick, you _are_ my cool friend."

Laughing, Nick hung up.

 

As Nick gets dressed, gels his hair, gets changed, and fixes his hair _again_ , he listens to Liam singing in the shower. It takes him a moment to pick up what it is, but once he's got it, it's easy to follow along; Clean Bandit's new single, with Jess Glynne again. They've found something that works, he thinks, and they should go with it as far as it'll get them, though he wouldn't mind hearing Jess do some solo stuff. She might have some out, actually, he hasn't exactly hunted for it.

"Remind me to look up Jess Glynne later," he calls to Liam.

"Sure," comes Liam's faint response, from under the sound of the water, and that's that. They're settled again. Things are back like they were before Liam left.

It's hard to admit that it's a relief, but it is. Nick worried. Maybe that Liam would realise he preferred not living with Nick, or that when Nick wasn't there he could think clearly and see he wasn't ready for what they were getting into. Maybe Liam just wouldn't miss him.

That worry fades. It eased when Liam walked in, and it fades more and more the longer they spend, routines intersecting and overlapping until Liam is helping Nick into his coat, despite his protests of, "I'm not your nan, Liam James, I can actually still dress myself."

Liam simply laughs and replies, "Ready to go?"

"Ready when you are."

 

They brave the cold to the car, and Liam spends the drive telling Nick everything he didn't have time to tell him in their brief phone calls. The stories, about Liam's parents and his sisters and their extended family, range from funny to mundane, but Nick is happy to listen either way. Liam processes like this, by retelling everything, and how he lights up when he remembers a detail he forgot is reward enough. His eyes stay focused on the road. Nick's eyes stay focused on him.

"New Year's resolutions?" Liam asks at last, when he exhausts his information about his week away.

"Keep having fun," Nick answers. It's his only one this year. He's decided everything else will play out as it chooses, and that's all that's really important, anyway. "You?"

"I have a list," says Liam, borderline bashful. "S' on my phone, if you want to see."

Of course Nick does. He unlocks Liam's phone and goes to memos, finds the one labelled 'NY15'. Liam has some fancy memos app where you can customise your text, so upon opening it, Nick is greeted with a rainbow of different colours. He estimates the list is approximately eight miles long.

"It's all coded," Liam explains. He has a way of bragging which comes across both proud and shy. "Green is stuff I have to _keep_ doing, red is stuff I have to _start_ doing. Blue is stuff to do with you."

There's a good few blue things. Nick skims through them – some are date ideas, some are just notes of events ("Nick and I are together for a year", et cetera, and Nick knows they're there because Liam wants to make it that far).

A little way down, he stops scrolling, because written in blue is: _Stop talking myself down._

"Love you," Nick reminds him, and Liam looks surprised but says it back without question.

 

Harry greets them both with a shining smile and kisses to their cheeks and a glass of champagne each. It's a bit early for bubbly, but Nick isn't complaining.

"There's a few people here already who don't know about you two," Harry warns, as they take off their coats. "So, y'know. Act however you want. I just wanted you to be aware."

"Thanks," they say together. Liam smiles, and Nick smiles back, and Harry rolls his eyes and says something about going to find Jeff.

"All good?" Liam checks. He always checks that Nick's all good, when they're reminded that this whole thing is a secret to so many people.

"All good," Nick assures him, because tonight, he is. He isn't always. Tonight, he doesn't mind.

 

They split up early on, subtle cheek kisses badly disguised as whispers, to find their respective people, and from there it's a bit of a blur. Sometimes Nick will look up and see Liam across the room and they'll exchange grins (one time Liam gives him one of those terrible adorable blink-winks and blows him a kiss), and then they'll lose track of one another again.

Nick gets caught up talking to Alexa and the next thing he knows, she's glancing at her watch and saying, "Four to midnight, Grimmy, you got a pop star to catch?"

"Shut up," Nick replies out of instinct, already casting around the room. He can't see Liam at first scan. "Listen, I've got to run, see you later."

"Yeah, get on with you." She gives him what he finds to be a very unnecessarily smug look as he pushes through the crowd towards the kitchen, stopping to exchange polite hellos with some people he knows as he passes.

Niall is sitting on the countertop, holding a beer in his lap and grinning at Harry, who is standing between his thighs. Harry is flushed and happy, bouncing on the balls of his feet, on the best type of extrovert high.

"Have you lads seen Liam?" Nick asks, looking at the clock. He's got about two minutes.

"I think he went upstairs at some point," Niall answers, shrugging and looking to Harry, who shrugs back. "Not sure though."

Making his way through the throng of people, who Louis is rallying for the countdown from where he stands on the coffee table, Nick finds himself at the base of the stairs. They're dark but he can't find a light switch, so he has his best shot at climbing blind. It's fine until he's about half way up, when he whacks solidly into someone.

"Ow!"

"Liam?"

Strong hands latch onto his wrists; Nick's eyes are starting to adjust, and he can see the outline of Liam resting his forehead on the wall and starting to laugh."Nick! I was looking for you, it's –"

"Nearly bloody missed midnight," Nick says, "imagine if we'd –"

The countdown starts, Louis's voice leading the crowd. Nick breaks off from what he was saying, so he and Liam can join in. Liam brings their clasped hands up to his chest and holds them there, suspended between their bodies.

_Five!_ , Liam gives Nick a big smile that he can just see. _Four!_ , Liam starts to giggle again, like they're teenagers who've never done this before, and that sets Nick off. _Three!_ , they bump noses, _two!_ , Liam steps on Nick's toes, _one!_

Liam's mouth is on Nick's, open and still laughing, and he tastes like the champagne from earlier and something else since then, possibly some of the chocolate Harry was handing out downstairs. He wraps an arm around Nick's shoulders and Nick rests his hands on Liam's waist, on the dip where he knows they fit.

Someone passes the doorway and Liam swears, still laughing, and pulls Nick sharply up a few steps into the darkness. "Christ, did they see us?"

"I don't think so," Nick answers breathlessly, but it doesn't really feel like it matters.

Sometimes Nick wonders if they're in too deep too early, if they should be trying to do things step-by-step. It's been all backwards since the beginning: Harry gave Nick Liam's number before they properly knew one another, Pig had heard Liam cry on speaker on the phone before she met him in person, and Liam was living in Nick's house before they were even together.

Sometimes things like this still feel like they're new, simple things like kissing at a friend's party, but then Liam rests his forehead on Nick's and it's familiar. It's not the type of intimacy he would ever get from a first date, or a second, or a third or a sixth or a ninth. It's something they've built over the course of months, something Nick can't quite word.

"Happy new year," says Liam, smiling like he can't believe he gets to say it, like it doesn't happen every year.

"Yeah," Nick replies, smiling back because he can't help it, "happy new year."

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated! find me on tumblr at gentlezayn !!


End file.
